This article has an unclear citation style. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking. Violates Wikipedia:External links: “Wikipedia articles may include links to web pages outside Wikipedia (external links), but they should not normally be used in the body of an article.”.(May 2012)

The Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) products are computer-hosted software radios. They are designed and sold by Ettus Research, LLC and its parent company, National Instruments. The USRP product family is intended to be a comparatively inexpensive hardware platform for software radio, and is commonly used by research labs, universities, and hobbyists.[1] USRPs connect to a host computer through a high-speed USB or Gigabit Ethernet link, which the host-based software uses to control the USRP hardware and transmit/receive data. Some USRP models also integrate the general functionality of a host computer with an embedded processor that allows the USRP Embedded Series to operate in a standalone fashion.

The USRP family was designed for accessibility, and many of the products are open source. The board schematics for select USRP models are freely available for download;[2] all USRP products are controlled with the open source UHD driver.[3] USRPs are commonly used with the GNU Radio software suite to create complex software-defined radio systems.

The USRP product family includes a variety of models that use a similar architecture. A motherboard provides the following subsystems: clock generation and synchronization, FPGA, ADCs, DACs, host processor interface, and power regulation. These are the basic components that are required for baseband processing of signals. A modular front-end, called a daughterboard, is used for analog operations such as up/down-conversion, filtering, and other signal conditioning. This modularity permits the USRP to serve applications that operate between DC and 6 GHz.

In stock configuration the FPGA performs several DSP operations, which ultimately provide translation from real signals in the analog domain to lower-rate, complex, baseband signals in the digital domain. In most use-cases, these complex samples are transferred to/from applications running on a host processor, which perform DSP operations. The code for the FPGA is open-source and can be modified to allow high-speed, low-latency operations to occur in the FPGA.

The USRP hardware driver (UHD) is the device driver provided by Ettus Research for use with the USRP product family.[14] It supports Linux, MacOS, and Windows platforms. Several frameworks including GNU Radio, LabVIEW, MATLAB and Simulink use UHD. The functionality provided by UHD can also be accessed directly with the UHD API, which provides native support for C++. Any other language that can import C++ functions can also use UHD. This is accomplished in Python through SWIG, for example.

UHD provides portability across the USRP product family. Applications developed for a specific USRP model will support other USRP models if proper consideration is given to sample rates and other parameters.

GNU Radio is an open source toolkit that can be used to develop software-defined radios. This framework uses a combination of C++ and Python to optimize DSP performance while providing an easy-to-use application programming environment.GNU Radio Companion is a graphical programming environment provided with GNU Radio.

For more instructions on how to install GNU Radio for use with the USRP product family, see GNU Radio + UHD.

The USRP N200 and USRP N210 are high-performance USRP devices that provide higher dynamic range and higher bandwidth than the bus series. Using a Gigabit Ethernet interface, the devices in the Networked Series can transfer up to 50 MS/s of complex, baseband samples to/from the host. This series uses a dual, 14-bit, 100 MS/S ADC and dual 16-bit, 400 MS/s DAC. This series also provides a MIMO expansion port which can be used to synchronize two devices from this series. This is the recommended solution for MIMO systems.

All products in Ettus Research Bus Series use a USB 2.0 interface to transfer samples to and from the host computer. These are recommended for applications that do not require the higher bandwidth and dynamic range provided by the Network Series(USRP N200 and USRP N210).

The Embedded Series combines the same functionality of other USRP devices with an OMAP 3 embedded processor. The devices in this family do not need to be connected to an external PC for operation. The Embedded Series is designed for applications that require stand-alone operation.

The USRP2 was developed after the USRP and was first made available in September 2008. It has reached end of life and has been replaced by the USRP N200 and USRP N210. The USRP2 was not intended to replace the original USRP, which continued to be sold in parallel to the USRP2.

The USRP family features a modular architecture with interchangeable daughterboard modules that serve as the RF front end. Several classes of daughterboard modules exist: Receivers, Transmitters and Transceivers.

Transmitter daughterboard modules can modulate an output signal to a higher frequency.

Receiver daughterboard modules can acquire an RF signal and convert it to baseband.

Transceiver daughterboard modules combine the functionality of a Transmitter and Receiver.